Sept. 25—Tech . 20—North Carolina . 7 The winning of the Southeastern Conference Champion- Oct. 2—Tech . 13—Notre Dame . 55 ship and the receiving of an invitation to represent this Oct. 9—Tech . 35—Athens Preflight . 7 . 0 conference in the famous Sugar Bowl classic by the 1943 Oct. 16—Tech . 27-300th Inf. Oct. 23—Tech . 14—Navy . 28 Yellow Jackets climaxed one of the most successful seasons Oct. 30—Tech . 7—Duke . 14 in the history of Georgia Tech. Nov. 6— T- Cc I . 42—L. S. U. 7 Army and Navy occupation of the campus made the Nov. 13—Tech . 33—Tulane . 0 development of a strong grid eleven difficult. Rigid scho- Nov. 20—Tech . 41—Clemson . 6 lastic requirements of the Navy caused practice to be Nov. 27—Tech . 48—Georgia . 0 Jan. 1—Tech . 20—Tulsa .... 18 limited to about an hour each day, and during this single hour Coach Alexander and his staff of coaches had to weed out the best players and the best combination of players from a field of seventy "unknown" candidates. Civilians were all but non-existant on the team which was composed mostly of Navy ROTC and V-12 transfer students. The Army did not permit its ASTP students to participate in inter-collegiate athletic events. The transfer students had all missed spring practice, further complicat- ing matters, and had to adjust themselves to a new method—the Tech method—of playing the game. Members of the 1942 Cotton Bowl team were missing, most of them going into active duty when the Enlisted Reserve Corps and the Army Air Corps Reserve were called Out in the Spring of 1942. The troubles, however, were somehow ironed out and the Jackets developed into the "best in the Southland" as the season progressed. The success of the 1943 Tech grid outfit operating un- der extremely difficult conditions is a testimony of the effort put forth by each and every member of the team— a credit to the players themselves, to their coaches, and to their school. During the run of the season two captains led the Engineers through a successfully scheduled season and to the Southeastern Conference Football Championship. George "Mutt" Manning and John Steber, captain and alternate captain respectively at the beginning of the sea- son, shared honors as being the captains of the same great team. John became the team leader after "Mutt" was called Steber, who took over the captaincy around the first of to active duty as an Ensign in the Navy last November November, came to Tech from Vanderbilt as a Navy V-12 at the close of the 1943 Summer semester. student. Quick to catch on to new methods of playing Manning, who was an honor roll student in the Mechani- the game, Steber almost immediately clinched a first-string cal Engineering Department, played three years of varsity guard position, at which he played throughout the season football at the pivot position while at Tech. An excellent in a fashion as to rate him the recognition as the outstand- line backer, "Mutt" was especially noted for his ability at ing linesman of the year by sportsmen over the nation. knocking down enemy passes. He was voted the most The record book shows that Stebers total time of actual valuable player on the 1942 team and was recognized as play exceeds that of any other member of the team during one of the outstanding centers of the nation. the 43 season. WILLIAM A. ALEXANDER Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach The story, in a nutshell, of the life of Coach Alexander is that of a man who played scrub football for four years while in college and later became one of the greatest football mentors in the history of the game. Coach Alex entered Georgia Tech in 1906, played scrub football in 1907-8-9, and served as student assistant coach in 1910. He taught in the mathematic department after graduation and was named assistant coach. In 1920 he relieved the late John Heisman as head football mentor. Under his regime, the athletic program has expanded at a constant rate to one of the best rounded programs in any school, having won conference championships in football, basketball, cross country, swimming, fencing, t rack, and tennis. Year in and year out, Coach Alex has put a strong eleven on the field though many times lacking even fair material, due to the rigid scholastic requirements of this school. Every year it has become necessary for him to devise new plays to utilize the available material. Alexander coached teams have won six conference championships and three bowl tilts. At the close of the 1942 season he was selected by the coaches of the nation as the Coach of the Year, the selection being based on "Skill as a football teacher, reputation for sportsmanship, achievement in competition, influence for the welfare of football, and ideal relationship to his players." Along with being one of the best-known and best-liked men in the game, Coach Alexander has served as a member of the National Football R tiles Committee, and is a former president of the American Football Coaches Association BOBBY DODD Assistant Football Coach and Bark field Coach An All-American from the University of Tennessee, Coach Dodd has received nation-wide acclaim for the work he has done in developing the Tech backfield each year into a fast- moving, smart playing, colorful unit. Coach Dodd attended Kingsport, Tennessee, High School, where he participated in four sports and was a member of the "Pony Express" backfield which scored 643 points in seven games. At Tennessee he played football, baseball, and basketball. In football he was an excel- lent field general and one of the greatest passers in the history of southern football. BOB MILLER Line Coach NORRIS DEAN End Coach DWIGHT KEITH "B" Tea,,, Coach J. H. PITTARD Freshman Coach CLAUDE BONDS Trainer SANDY SANDLIN Assistant Trainer ARTHUR H. ARMSTRONG Faculty Chairman of Athletics WHITTLESEY, EWING, WILHOIT Managers EDDIE ATKINSON MAURICE FURCHGOTI HARRY MORROW BUSTER BEALL. BOBBY GASTON ROLAND PHILLIPS JOHN BELL. BILL HARPER EDDIE PROKOP BILL BOURNE CLAUDE HARRISON TEX RITTER JOE BROWN GENE HILL ED SCHARESCHWERDT FRANK BROYLES GEORGE HILLS BILL SMITH TOMMY CARPENTER CHARLIE HOOVER JOHN STEBER BILL. CHAMBERS WALTER KILZER WILBUR STEIN BOB CUMMINGS MICKEY LOGA N PHIL TINSLEY JOE DANIEL MUTT MANNING MARTIN WAKEFIELD JIM DOROUGH FAY MILLS JIMMY WILSON JACK FAULKNER PAT CONLON Beginning the season after one and a half months of hard, earnest practice during rationed time, the Yellow jackets of Georgia Tech went into the opening game with their strength unknown, untested, and doubted. The season ended with the Engineers winners of eigh t games, losers of three. The Tech eleven went down in defeat before Notre Dame, Navy and Duke, rated as the three strongest teams in the nation in the order listed. During the progress of the 1943 season, two players were seen to conic before the eyes of the nation to be recognized as All-Americans; the captaincy of the team was seen to change hands when the Navy called to active duty several essential players; and the team was seen to develop from an untested, doubtful outfit composed almost entirely of transfer Navy V-12 students and third and fourth string players of the Tech 42 team into the grid powerhouse of the South. An individual account of each of the games that made up a season of upsets and unusual occurrances follows in dui only style possible to give proper color to the coverages of the battles—that of a typical daily newspaper. ATLANTA, Sept. 27—Led by big Eddie Prokop, who made a brilliant 79- y rd touchdown run to put the game safely on ice, the Georgia Tech Engineers defeated a favored North Carolina team 20-7 here today in the jackets first test of the season. Only during the last few minutes of the game were the Engineers certain of victory over the Navy V- 12 aided Tarheel "dream team," a team reported to be four and five deep at every position in experienced gridmen who transferred to North Carolina from schools all over the South. In the first five minutes of the tilt, Tech recovered a Carolina fumble and immediately scored on a pass from Broyles to Hill. Techs second score came early in the third period when Prokop bucked the line to move the ball over the double stripe after a perfectly executed fake play, featuring Logan and Broyles, had moved the ball into scoring position. The Tarheels scored late in the third quarter and were threatening again late in the fourth when they lost the ball on downs deep in Tech territory. The next play, after the jackets took possession of the ball, Prokop hit off tackle, cut sharp to the right and outran the entire North Carolina backfield to pay dirt. SOUTH BEND, IND., Oct. 2---The old Model T, with Bertelli at the wheel, ran wild today as a slightly favored Notre Dame eleven trounced a tired Georgia Tech team 55-13 at Cartier Field before a capacity crowd in one of the most exciting one-sided battles on record. Not until past intermission when a long train trip began to show on the Jackets, who arrived here only a few hours before game time, did it become evident that the Irish were to be the winners. Early in the second period the Irish led by two tallies. Tech then began to move through the air lanes with Prokop tossing and Dorough and Kilzer receiving, moving the ball into enemy land where Scharfschwerdt bucked over the final sixty-first yard for the touchdown.